Safety razor



P. N. PETERS SAFETY RAZOR Aug. 24, 1943.

Filed June 3, 1941 INVEIIVTOR. R'l'er Mcholas'fil'ers ATTORNEY.

P t ed Ana 24, 1943 U I STAT-E5 PAT The present invention relates" to safety 'razors and, "more particularly, to the guard members forming a part'wthereof.

It is well known that, in shaving, a certain amount of pressure must beapplied to the razor so as to enable the 'bladaedgeto maintain a close, continuous" contact with the skin. When shaving 3 pressure is insui'iicien-t, hair shafts easier for the. average man" to a'pply correct shaving pressure, safety razors are usuallydebladeedge exposure; defined as the distance by which the cutting edgeproj ects beyond the line tangent toxboth; the cap and'the guard.

merelybend. down, duck under=-the advancing blade edge, and 'slip throughintact. To make it Unfortunatelyybecause the 'huinan face has anfirregular surface, \any fixed blade ex osure, l

newever' carefully determined, is j'bound to bea comp omise. iffdesigned correctly, for shaving the comparatiyely sat surface r, the cheek, it isapt to 'be 'insuliicient for the concave underside ofthejaw and altogether excessive fortlie convex chin, where most shaying casual; ties 'takeplacefi e f Attempts havebeen. made in the past to vary theblade exposure by means of ailexible spring guard) None ofthese attempts successful because, in acquiring flexibility, the newguar ds weredeprived of their primary and" most imsible as wellas fiexibl; 'Still another objectis" to provide a guard member the action of which on the skin isentirely disassociated from and independentflof the blade clamping 'means. Earlier guard members, made of some deformable material'throiigh'out, did" not fulfil this lmpor-" tant' requirement, with the result that their evitable deformation in clampin'g the blade was" frequently transmitted to the skin contacting .porti dn, distorting the -latterfand throwing it out of alignment with the blade It is also an objectloi this invention to proedge.

vide a raz'orfhaving the above enumerated ad vantages and in which, at the same time, proper use is made. of heat conducting and insulating materials to insure a correct shaving technique, as isfully described; and explained in my UJS. Patent No. 1,821,574, and further. elucidated in my copending, application, "Ser No. 279,0051nd'w Patent No.2,298,508. I

Other purposes, not specifically mentioned above, will appear from the specification which follows and from the accompanying drawing; in l which:, v Figures IandfZ are idiagrammatic views il-,

. lustrating the principledn'volvedin the present portant'function, namely; that 13 of effectively,

stretching the skin ahead of the out-ting edged If flexible spring guardwasflexible enough to provide-a variable blade edge exposure at normal shaving pressures, it was no longer rig df enough to stretch the'skin in front of the cute" tingedge. Conversely, if it was rigid enough to accomplish: such stretching, then it was not sufficiently flexible to vary the edgeexposure, unless subjectedto excessive gerous pressures, I

Another .drawbackfiof earlier fleirible guards was attributable 'to their" rigidity lengthwise.

Thedegree of deflection of the entire guard was usually determined by thehighest spot which it was contacting at the time.

This action often bared the blade corners at inopportune moments and permitted them to inflict painful cuts.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a guard member affording a blade edge exposure which can readily vary at normal shaving pressures without at the same time losing any of its own efficiency as'a skin stretching mechanism. Another object is to provide such a guard capable of yielding not only perpendicu and, therefore; tie-n invention; Figure 3 is a perspective view ofan' unassembled three piece safety razor of the fa miliar double edge typejbut equipped with a guard member in accordance with the present inventioni' Figure 4 is a cross, section taken along'theline f44 of Figure 5; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a guard member embodying the present invention, with a portion broken ofi, Figure 615 a detail showing a variant of the guard member in cross section'similar to that shown in Figure 4, but without the cap or handle. f Y Referring to the figures in detail, I is the han-; dle of a standard. safety razor, 2. is the guard member embodying the present invention, 3 the blade, 4 the cap, 5 the central threaded pin on the cap which connects the cap to the handle I in the assembled device. In addition to the pin 5, there are shown the two positioning pins .6, 6.

Holes I inthe guard member 2, and holes 8 in the blade allow the passage of the pins 5 and 6 through the guard member and blade. The threaded pin 5 is threaded into the threaded hole 9 of the handlel when thedevice is as- -made jof a resilient, flexible and compressible The guard H, if made of rubber, is a non-conductor of heat. While the guard H is shown as anchored in the grooves of the guard member, obviously, it may be fitted onto it in various other Ways, not shown here because such ways are too well known in the art to require illustration. The guard ll maybe further secured in the guard member by cement, or, after being snapfitted into the grooves, retained there under stress, either tensional or compressional, or both, as is illustrated in Figure 6, wherein two different modes of fitting are shown, one on each side of the guard member.

It is important to observe that, whatever the modification of the invention as-here shown may be adopted, in all cases thejaction of the skin-contacting and exposure regulating guard II is wholly independent of the action of th blade contacting portion 12.

In the illustration, Figure 6, the elastic guard II is made of a single piece of neoprene, with a central cut-out substantially conforming to, but slightly smaller than the cross section of the main body of the guard membenasdefined by the grooves I0. During the assembly, the gasket-like neoprene guard is stretched, slipped over the-rigid portion of the guard member and allowed to snap into the grooves, which may, or may not, have a cement coating to further secure permanent bond between the mainbody portion of the guard member and the guard H. l 1

There is a distinct advantage. in having the elastic guard completely encircle the rigid portion of the guard member and overlap the cap corners. Such a construction not only protects the razor when it isaccidentally dropped on the floor, but it also enables the user to grasp the; razor head without having his fingers come in contact with the main guard body previously downward, the point 0 is deflected at El. When it is moved forward during the shaving operation, the point ll assumes the position at ii". The positions of the guard II when so deflected are indicated in dot and dot-dash lines respectively. It is clear that the combined pressure of the razor downward and its thrust forward form a resultant force acting substantially in a direction perpendicular to the edge of the guard, i. e., the pointil of the guard H is compressed from the point 0 to the point 0 in this operation. Having provided a guard capable of compression, I have, therefore, providedmeans for properly regulating the edge exposure under normal shaving pressures.

,While only a double edged razor has been illustrated in the drawing, obviously, the invention is equally applicable to single edged razors. The

' present invention is an improvement on my Patscalded in hot water, or with the jagged non ent No. 1,821,574, and, for best results, should be practiced in accordance with the shaving technique set forth in my copending application Ser; No. 279,005 now Patent No.;2,298,508, issued Oct. 13, 1942. I

I claim: r

1. In a safety razor, a guard member comprisa ing'a rigid, unyielding blade contacting portion and a resilient and compressiblemember extending sufficiently far out of said rigid portion to be flexible for regulating, the blade" edge exposure:

2. In a safety razor, a guard member, comprising a blade contacting portion ofrigid, unyielding, heat-conducting material, and a member of resilient, compressible and heat insulating material for extending sufiiciently farout of said rigid portion to be flexible for regulating the blade edge exposure. a I

3. In a safety razor, a guard member comprising a bladecontacting-portion of rigid, unyield ing, heat-conducting material, and a member of resilient, compressible and heat insulating Ina-- terial extending sufiiciently far out of said rigid portion to be flexible for regulating the blade edge exposure, said resilient member being ca pable of yielding only at or near the-points at which external pressure is applied.

4. In a safety razor, a guard member comprising a rigid unyielding blade contacting portion, and an elastic skin contacting member embracing said rigid portion.

5. In a safety razor, a guard member comprising a rigid, unyielding blade contacting portion, a K resilient and compressible skin contacting member extending sufliciently far out of said rigid portion to be flexible, and means on said rigid portion for attaching said flexible member thereto. I

6. In a safety razor, a guard member comprising a rigid, unyielding blade contacting portion provided with a groove formation and anelastic member snap-fitted into said groove formation and held therein under stress.

- PETER NICHOLAS PETERS. 

